Kentwood - Explorer Elementary

R 400.8125(11) · R 400.8125(11) Outdoor play area. (11) All pieces of playground equipment that have an elevated playing or climbing surface, regardless of the height of the playing or climbing surface, must be surrounded by a shock absorbing surface and meet the guidelines defined by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission Handbook for Public Playground Safety. The shock absorbing surface material may be either unitary or the loose- fill type. An exception to this subrule is provided for n atural playgrounds.

All pieces of elevated playground equipment did not have the enough shock absorbing material to meet the guidelines defined by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission Handbook for Public Playground Safety. There was less than nine inches of wood chips under the equipment Child F fell from.

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722.115n(3) Application for or renewal of license to operate child care center, group child care home, or family child care home; household member or child care staff member; criminal history check; requirements; duties of department. Each individual listed in subsection (1) shall give written consent at the time of the license application and before a group child care home or family child care home allows an individual to be a member of the household, or before becoming a child care staff member to allow the department of state police to conduct the criminal history check required under subsection (1). The department shall require the individual to submit his or her fingerprints to the department of state police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the criminal history check as required in subsection (1). Technical Assistance Technical assistance is support and training given to the licensee/licensee designee on a specific rule. Technical assistance includes consultation on how the facility can best maintain compliance with a rule.

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R 400.8134(4) · R 400.8134(4) Hand washing. Guidelines for hand washing must be posted in food preparation areas, in toilet rooms, and by all hand washing sinks. New Rule Number R 400.8251(3) The licensee designee is aware that the Licensing Rules for Child Care Centers were updated on May 7, 2025 and the licensee designee must be in compliance with all of the updated rules by August 6, 2025. Technical assistance was provided on the updated rules including: • R 400.8213a(1) MiRegistry. • R 400.8269(1), (3), and (8) Emergency preparedness and response planning procedures. • R 400.8112(7) Children’s records. • R 400.8251(2)(a) and (c) Hand washing. Bureau

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R 400.8125 · R 400.8125 Staff; volunteer; requirements. (1) All staff and volunteers shall provide appropriate care and supervision of children at all times.

On 02/16/2023, the center sent an incident report and statements to the department. On 02/22/2023, I spoke with center director Jennifer Barlage via telephone. Ms. Barlage explained that the center was dismissing children at the end of the afternoon session when the incident occurred. They were in the hallway and the children were getting their coats on. She noticed CCSM 1 go back into the classroom when the children were lined up and thought it was odd. Later she saw CCSM 1 come back with Child A's Mother and go into the classroom. They came back into the hallway and CCSM 1 asked Ms. Barlage if Child A was with her. Ms. Barlage asked her if Child A was missing. CCSM 1 told her that she did not know where Child A was. Ms. Barlage asked her if she had looked in the bathroom. The doors to the school from the hallway were closed and she saw CCSM 1 and Child A's Mother go through them. Ms. Barlage started looking in the other classrooms and started opening the lockers because Child A had gone in lockers in the past in front of staff. She opened up a locker and Child A laughed and said, "that 2 was funny." Child A never responded to them as they were calling his name while looking for him. Ms. Barlage reported that CCSM 1 started 3 weeks ago. CCSM 2 was dismissing children at the door at the time that they were looking for Child A. Ms. Barlage reported that CCSM 1 did not know that Child A had hidden in the lockers before. The dismissal process is that the whole classroom gets ready together, lines up, they are counted, and then they move as a group to the door. CCSM 2 said that she took half down to the dismissal door because they were the ones ready, and it was time. Ms. Barlage had not previously seen the classroom split up like they had that day. The staff were previously trained on active supervision. Child A has some behavior issues and is on a behavior plan. On 02/24/2023, I completed an on-site inspection and toured the center with Ms. Barlage. She explained the spaces where the incident occurred and the dismissal/exit doors. I interviewed CCSM 2 who explained that she was getting the children from her classroom ready to go home and took the children that were ready down to the dismissal doors. CCSM 2 said that she told CCSM 1 that there were 3 children left with her and she had the rest. CCSM 2 did not know how many children she had. She would have had to have 10 with her since they have 13 enrolled. Parents were in line at the door waiting to sign their children out. The children were sitting on the floor waiting for their turn to be dismissed. Child A's Mother came up in the line but CCSM 2 knew that he was not with her, so she told Child A's Mother that he was not ready yet and was with CCSM 1. Child A's Mother came back to her and said that she did not see Child A. CCSM 2 asked her to hold on while she dismissed the rest of the children. Child A's Mother walked back to CCSM 1 and then came back to her yelling that she couldn't find him. CCSM 2 said that she ran into the classroom and called the office to report him missing and when she came back into the hallway, Child A had been found so she called the office back to update them. CCSM 2 said that Child A returned to the center the following day, tried to get into a locker again and stated, "it was so much fun." 4th I interviewed CCSM 1 who reported that the incident happened during her week working at the center. She said that she went back into the classroom to grab her coat and CCSM 2 was walking down the hall with a group of children and told her that she was leaving children with her. CCSM 1 does not recall CCSM 2 telling her how many children she was leaving her with. CCSM 1 saw 3 children by the lockers, so she helped them get ready. She did not see Child A at that time. She said that she was standing right in front of Child A's locker during that time. She did not see his bag and he did not make any noise. It was another child's first day at the center and she

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